WARCRAFT Movie Interview: Robert Kazinsky on Possible Sequels

PCGamesN had a great interview with WARCRAFT Movie actor Robert Kazinsky (Orgrim Doomhammer) to talk about his role in the movie. Robert goes on to say there will be a second and third film till they get to The Frozen Throne story, but backpedals with “If we get to make them.” Figure of speech, or does Robert knows something? That’s wide open for debate.

My Thoughts

The Duncan Jones’ WARCRAFT film was based on the events of the first game launched in 1994 — WARCRAFT: ORCS AND HUMANS — with some basic lore bits from its 2001 novel WARCRAFT: THE LAST GUARDIAN.

Duncan Jones certainly left a few cliffhangers for sequels by leaving Lothar as the successor of King Llane to lead Stormwind to war against the Horde, having Prince Varian (as a child), and showing Aedelas Blackmoore’s servant pick up baby Thrall from the moses in the river.

If a Warcraft movie sequel hits the big screen, it will show an epic battle between Stormwind and the Horde where the Horde destroys Stormwind, and Lothar is forced to take Prince Varian and the survivors to Lordaeron. That in itself would be interesting because the scene where Lothar and Prince Varian arrive to the throne room of King Terenas appears in the pages of WORLD OF WARCRAFT: ARTHAS, where we see Arthas as a child.

It is mandatory. The movie sequel requires the following actors reprising their roles once more as Lothar (Travis Fimmel), Prince Varian (Dylan Schombing), Queen Taria (Ruth Negga), Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer), Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), and Orgrim (Robert Kazinsky) in order to wrap the First War and start the story of the Second War.

I am uncertain why Duncan Jones didn’t wrap up the movie with the destruction of Stormwind, because now he would have to focus too much of that in the sequel which is already crowded with a lot of story to cram in.

In the novelization, the Horde moves in to attack Khaz Modan, Zul’dare, Tol Barad, Aerie Peak, and Quel’Thalas. That means Zul’jin and the Amani Trolls. For obvious reasons, Turalyon, Alleria, Danath, Kurdran Wildhammer, and Khadgar must be joining Lothar to fight the Horde — and it is possible that the second movie shows the Mak’gora duel between Lothar and Orgrim Doomhammer.

Robert Kazinsky has a heavy role on his shoulders with a character that is guaranteed to be in the next two films — if Duncan, Legendary and Blizzard decide to go the route of bringing the story of the Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal to the big screen.

From that moment forth, Warcraft jumps several years forward into Warcraft: Lord of the Clans with a young Thrall, Orgrim Doomhammer and Drek’Thar liberating the Horde from the internment camps leading up to Medivh’s return from the death commanding Thrall to sail the Horde west to the ancient lands of Kalimdor.

Interview Snippet

When the movie came out there were two very polar reactions from fanbase and critics. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Kazinsky: I could sit here and I could talk about that all day if you’d like. We wanted to make the greatest video game movie ever made and essentially that’s quite a low bar. Do I think we achieved that? Yes, I think we made the greatest video game movie ever made. Does that make it in itself a great movie? I don’t think so. I don’t think we made the perfect film because we couldn’t. We can’t take that story from the lore and do it 100% honestly because the contradictions of when they created it where there, and what works filmically doesn’t work thematically.

So there’s obviously going to be some people who are upset because we didn’t have Mannoroth for example, or any sign of Sargeras or the Legion. We had to make a film that worked on its own, that kind of thing. And we were very limited, essentially, in how we were going to do that.

We made a solid film, I think. We made a really good starting point for a universe, and the next films, two and three, are the ones that can expand on that world-building movie that we’ve made. I like to say that we made A New Hope, which by no means is the greatest Star Wars movie, but it sets up the next two until Return of the Jedi, which in my opinion – you can argue with me about Empire as much as you like but I think Return of the Jedi’s a better film.

We will go on in the second and third films, if we get to make them, to make even greater stories and to really expand upon that world until we reach the point where everyone wants to get to, which is Frozen Throne. So we had a hard task there of making this movie into a film that would be critically acclaimed – which it was never going to be critically acclaimed, because it is a video game adaptation. And that’s just the way of the world.

You have to look at how the press received this. It broke records in 19 out of 20 territories on its first release, it broke records in China, it was really well received and well reviewed all the way round the world, apart from North America. And that’s that snobbishness that people have to video game transfers. And that will change, because people will begin to realise that video games have evolved from being Sonic the Hedgehog. They have evolved from a plumber running across a map to save Peach from Kooper every single game. They’ve evolved now to being filmic in their own way. If you look at Assassin’s Creed or Mass Effect, these are great stories, they’re great movies.

As these games begin to transition more and more into film and these stories become more and more told, I think that inevitable snobbishness about video game transfers will dissipate into just being good films. They’re just good stories. And people won’t judge them so harshly because of how they were born. — full interview at PCGamesN

Medievaldragon

Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film.
Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers.
I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com)
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